One day after a controversial land exchange was halted, a federal appeals court lifted an injunction, allowing the $10 million deal to proceed, a crucial step in completing a high-speed toll road in Jefferson County.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the temporary injunction Wednesday, five days after a federal judge ruled that a land exchange between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority was legal. The three-judge panel had lifted the injunction Dec. 21 after reviewing responses that were submitted earlier that day.

Almost a year ago, Superior, Golden and two environmental groups — WildEarth Guardians and Rocky Mountain Wild — filed a lawsuit claiming that the land exchange was illegal and that proper environmental evaluations never were completed.

The 3-mile-long, 300-foot-wide strip of land sits along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge and would complete the Jefferson Parkway, the last link in a beltway around metropolitan Denver.

After the Dec. 21 order to dismiss the lawsuit, officials from the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority said the group planned to move forward with a Dec. 31 closing. Thursday’s order to vacate the injunction will probably result in the deal being finalized before the end of the year.

WildEarth Guardians and Rocky Mountain Wild began the process of appealing the dismissal this week. On Wednesday, the two environmental groups and Superior filed a motion to stop the land exchange until the resolution of that appeal. A federal appellate panel granted the temporary injunction.

The lawsuit named several local and federal agencies, including U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Colorado State Land Board and the Jefferson Board of County Commissioners. On Thursday, a response filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the federal agencies named in the lawsuit requested that the motion to block the exchange be terminated. The injunction “will likely sound the death knell for the transaction,” the response said.

Jordan Steffen was the legal affairs reporter for The Denver Post. She left the organization in June 2016 after joining in January 2011. Her past coverage areas included breaking news, child welfare, the western suburbs and crime. She was raised in the Colorado mountains and graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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